Wheeled carriages for supporting a patient in a substantially horizontal position are well known in the art and a representative example of an early version of such a device is illustrated in Dr. Homer H. Stryker's U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,116, reference to which is incorporated herein. Other such wheeled carriages are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,230,343 and 6,264,006, both of which are presently owned by the Assignee of record for this invention. The subject matter of these latter two patents is also to be incorporated herein by reference. The subject matter of pending application U.S. Ser. No. 10/083,234, filed on Feb. 26, 2002, presently owned by the Assignee of record for this application, is also to be incorporated herein by reference.
In some instances of patient care, it is desirable to facilitate the exit of a patient from the foot end of the bed. In order to facilitate this type of bed exit, it is an object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, which is free of actuators directly connected to and associated with the foot section.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the lengthening and shortening feature includes a latch mechanism that locks the foot section in selected positions of and between the fully extended position and the fully retracted position and includes a latch release mechanism that is manually operable as well as operable in response to an engagement thereof with a floor surface on which the patient support apparatus is supported in order to effect a release of the latching mechanism and facilitating a shortening of the foot section.